Brice pointed to a table across the room. “And I sat where Bonnie and Duster are. We did a lot of nodding to each other for a few days at breakfast and lunch.”
She laughed. “I’ll bet. I’m a lady, you know.”
“I’m not ever forgetting,” Brice said.
“So,” Duster asked, standing as Brice held the chair for Dixie and then went and sat down. “You on board now completely?”
“I am,” Dixie said. “Brice told me all about my counterpart and how she handled being alone here and how we met. I hope she is having as much luck with the Brice of her timeline.”
“An infinite number of her did, and infinite numbers of her didn’t,” Duster said.
“I feel bad for my counterparts that did not,” Dixie said.
“As you know from the math,” Bonnie said, smiling. “Timeline splits often come back together. I have a hunch that Duster and Brice and I can be very persuasive.”
“Very,” Dixie said, and laughed.
Brice loved that laugh, and those large brown eyes and everything about Dixie.
“Did you have any doubts when Brice told you?” Bonnie asked.
Brice had been worried about that question as well, but hadn’t asked.
“Honestly,” Dixie said, “I’m thinking the three major turning points to get me to this point are not really turning points. And I might be able to prove that mathematically given time, some computers, and help from Brice.”
Brice just stared at her, as did Bonnie and Duster. The waitress interrupted them at that moment and took their breakfast orders. Brice almost said he would have his “regular” of ham and eggs and the wonderful butter bread and then realized he actually had never been to this restaurant in this timeline before.
As the waitress walked away, Duster asked Dixie, “Care to explain?”
“Looking back at the three turning points of hiring me, the lodge conversation, and Brice telling me about how we met,” Dixie said, “I had no doubts at any of the points that would have been large enough to make me change my decision. I can’t imagine making any other decision.”
“So it would have to be a very different you who would make negative decisions along the way,” Bonnie said.
Dixie nodded. “Very, very different than the Dixie that Brice met here in that other timeline and that you two hired.”
“Well ain’t that interesting?” Duster sat back shaking his head.
“The turning points would have then come earlier in your life,” Bonnie said, clearly thinking and almost talking to herself. “Decisions on careers, studying math, accidently getting pregnant and so on.”
“Yes,” Dixie said. “Those turning point events all through my life caused me to be a person you almost hired or did hire. From there I don’t think, knowing you three, that anything but this outcome was possible.”
Brice had been stunned and had just sat listening because he had been just as worried about all the Brice counterparts in other timelines not wanting Dixie. So what Dixie was saying, that might not have ever been a timeline turning point.
Then he realized what Dixie had said about the math proving it and he jumped to the work he and Dixie had done in the other timeline and then eased it forward.
“We can show the equations on that, actually,” Brice said. “It is a branch off the calculations that Dixie and I did on proving why you could remember the lodge being and not being in the same timeline.”
“We figured that out mathematically?” Dixie asked.
Duster laughed and Bonnie just smiled.
“We did,” Brice said. “And you were about to get to it in your review but I wanted you to know it was your math you were studying, so the lodge and coming here was the only way.”
“So you two want to stay here and figure out this new problem for a month or so,” Duster asked.
Brice looked at Dixie and she smiled. “I would love that.”
“So would I,” Brice said.
Bonnie nodded. “Looks like we’re going shopping after breakfast. Can’t have a lady staying at a fancy hotel wearing the same clothes every day, now can we?”
“And what will you two do?” Dixie asked. “Will you stay as well?”
Duster looked at Bonnie. “You want to stay or you want to do some traveling?”
“This hotel is wonderful,” Bonnie said. “And Boise is very pretty this time of the year and into the early fall. I think I’ll stay this time around.”
“As will I,” Duster said, breaking into a huge smile. “There’s a great poker game in the basement of this hotel.”
“The big tub in our room doesn’t add into that equation?” Bonnie asked.
“Not unless you are in it,” Duster said, smiling at Bonnie.
“Hush,” Bonnie said, smiling. “The children are listening.”
Brice was pretty sure his face was slightly red remembering what he and Dixie had done in that big tub in her room last night. And Dixie was flat out blushing.
“Promise me one thing?” Bonnie asked.
Duster nodded.
“We all meet for lunch every day and talk math,” she said. “I’d like to be a part of where this math is going instead of just tracking it from behind.”
“As would I,” Duster said, smiling. “I’ll make sure we have a corner table every lunch and no one is sat near us.”
“We can sure talk about it more than just lunch,” Brice said.
“We just might,” Bonnie said, smiling.
“That we might,” Duster said. “Damn, this is going to be fun.”
And with that Brice couldn’t agree more.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
October 7th, 1901
Dixie’s Timeline
DIXIE ARRIVED BY herself in the crystal cavern, stepped back from the wooden table and looked around at the incredible beauty of the massive room. This was the first time she had been alone in the room and it felt intimidating.
She now understood the math of this place, but actually standing here, looking at billions of alternate timelines, just awed her.
She turned toward the big steel door leading back into the supply cavern. It was locked, so she had beat the first Brice here for their arranged meeting.
She was mathematically certain he would be coming, but she and her Brice might be wrong with the math.
It was always possible. And that twisted at her stomach.
She and the Brice she had met while alone in Boise had agreed to meet just four hours after they left if they could. They were to tell the other one if they had had success in meeting the counterparts. But as it turned out, that had not been a mathematical issue.
As Duster had said, knowing the math of a situation in hindsight was a completely different thing than going through the situation first. Boy had he been right about that.
It was about eleven in the evening outside the mine, and more than likely snowing slightly. But she had no intention of going out there.
She just would wait here for the timeline Brice she had met first and tell him she was fine, that the Brice of her timeline was now with her. And that she loved him.
She had no doubt from the math she and her Brice had done over the last month in Boise that this first Brice had the same result with his Dixie.
The two timelines were just far, far too similar, more than likely only divided by a decision for a person to turn one way on the way to work or turn another, or something even far smaller that would have consequences down the road.
Either of them saying no to any of the major turning points was not likely, considering who they were in each timeline. And the math that she and her Brice had done in the 1901 Boise with Bonnie and Duster had backed that up.
Now her Brice stood with Bonnie and Duster in the crystal room in 2016, waiting the two minutes and fifteen seconds for her to return from this last meeting before they headed back to the modern Boise.
She had lived over a month since that breakfast in the Monumental Lodge tell
ing Brice about this place. But in reality, her timeline reality, that had only been six hours before.
She moved over and opened the steel door that led into the storage cavern. Lights came up as she did, but again the place seemed empty. She went to a timer that Duster had hidden in one wall and checked the exact time and date.
She had arrived at 15 minutes before eleven in the evening on the correct date. One hour and fifteen minutes from now and she would unplug the machine and go back and know the original Brice wasn’t coming.
But she knew he would.
She knew Brice.
She turned around and went back into the cavern, closing the steel door and locking it again. As she finished that and turned toward the wooden table and wooden box on top of it, Brice appeared, his hand on the wooden box.
He turned and saw her and smiled. “Waiting long?”
“Just a few minutes,” she said, her heart racing.
“Duster and Bonnie have that timer pretty fine-tuned,” Brice said, walking over to her across the dirt floor, but not hugging her or kissing her.
Now, for the first time, she understood how Bonnie and Duster felt when they met their counterparts. It just seemed wrong.
Her Brice, the man she now loved, was waiting for her to return.
“You and your Dixie do the math to prove there was no question this would happen?” she asked.
“Wonderful month in 1901 Boise in the Avalanche Creek suite,” he said, nodding. “I love that place and that room.
“Same here,” she said, smiling. “With Bonnie and Duster staying around the entire time and helping.”
“That was wonderful,” Brice said, nodding. “Are they all waiting for you in 2016 for you to return?”
“They are,” Dixie said. “Yours?”
“They are,” Brice said. “My counterpart will be worried.”
“So will mine,” Dixie said. “But they will only be waiting for just over two minutes. We have as long as we want.”
Brice nodded. “We could take that extra time, but wouldn’t you rather spend that time with your Brice?”
Dixie laughed. “I would.”
Brice smiled. “So we kept our date and we’re both fine. Let’s go start our futures. This is just saying goodbye to a past.”
“A great past that led to our futures,” Dixie said, smiling at him. “You know, it’s really hard to be sad knowing you are standing here waiting for me in 2016.”
He nodded to that, and they turned back toward the wooden table with the machine.
“Who is going to pull the wire to send us into our futures?” Brice asked as they got close to the table.
“We both are,” she said. “At the same time. That only seems appropriate, don’t you think?”
“Perfect,” he said.
They both got into position with a glove on one hand and the other hand on the wooden top of the machine.
“Dixie,” Brice said, turning to look at her. “I love you in all timelines.”
“Brice,” she said, staring into his wonderful green eyes. “I love you in all timelines as well.”
He smiled and she smiled back.
Then they both pulled the wires off the machine, sending them both back to their own timelines.
And their own futures with each other.
SOTERA
She’s beautiful
lying there peacefully beside me,
sleeping.
Visions of future lovers
parade through her dreams
like a long line of dominoes
all standing on end.
She’s running atop them, jumping
one to another
staying just barely ahead of their fall.
I’m the third. I have five dots.
I wonder what will happen
when she reaches the end.
Maybe I’m the end, I thought,
falling.
She’s beautiful
lying there peacefully beside me,
sleeping.
(First published in Prize Poets ‘76 in 1976)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith published more than a hundred novels in thirty years and hundreds and hundreds of short stories across many genres.
He wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, they wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.
He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.
He now writes his own original fiction under just the one name, Dean Wesley Smith. In addition to his upcoming novel releases, his monthly magazine called Smith’s Monthly premiered October 1, 2013, filled entirely with his original novels and stories.
Dean also worked as an editor and publisher, first at Pulphouse Publishing, then for VB Tech Journal, then for Pocket Books. He now plays a role as an executive editor for the original anthology series Fiction River.
For more information go to www.deanwesleysmith.com, www.smithsmonthly.com or www.fictionriver.com.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction: One Year Old and Learning to Walk
The War of Poker: A Poker Boy Story
Butchered Whale on a Red Bedspread
The Life and Times of Buffalo Jimmy
Part Thirty-four
Part Thirty-five
Part Thirty-six
Who’s Holding Donna Now?
Heartburn
The Adventures of Hawk
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The Waiting of the Wind: A Buckey the Space Pirate Story
First Attempt
Second Attempt
Third Attempt
Two Roads, No Choices
One
Two
Three
Four
Avalanche Creek: A Thunder Mountain Novel
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
Chapter Forty-four
Chapter For
ty-five
Chapter Forty-six
Chapter Forty-seven
Chapter Forty-eight
Sotera
Smith's Monthly
About the Author
Copyright Information
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